Thursday, December 7, 2006

Homemade Christmas presents: Brandied fig compote

Last year during NYC’s transit strike, I was lucky enough to have the kind of job where I didn’t have to actually risk freezing my ass off or being hit by a car in the ungodly crush of traffic that ensued, and I stayed put in Brooklyn. I spent my days doing research, listening to NPR, and making my own Christmas presents for friends and colleagues: brandied fig compote in little 4 oz. jars. I shopped at Sahadi’s for the figs, and fished out a few recipes from the Internet. I stewed cut up and de-stemmed figs in juice and brandy with raisins, and after about an hour, I had a mixture that was the consistency of jam. I’m not really into using pectin, so I called it compote instead. I made little labels for each jar in the shape of holly leaves, decorated them with silver glitter, and brought them to my office’s holiday party. They were a hit.

I’m still using some of the compote myself on crackers and toast. This year, I thought I’d try to teach a workshop on how to do this to some neighbors, but I haven’t had the time to make the hand-made sign that I’d planned. I wanted to advertise my workshop by hanging my signs in Brooklyn’s two Tea Houses, but I took the lazy route and posted an ad about it on Craigslist. Sadly, I haven’t gotten any responses yet. If you’re interested in joining the workshop, leave me a comment with a way to get in touch with you, or visit Craigslist and search under classes and workshops for “homemade” and “fig” and “compote.” A $75 registration fee gets you into the 2-hour workshop, and you’ve leave with the know-how to do it yourself, and 12 4 oz. quilted canning jars filled with fig compote. I provide all of the supplies, except the brandy. You can sauce it up, but it’s BYOB.

3 comments:

Chance said...

No fair...you are makin' me drool at the computer. Wish I was down in NYC for figs.

Chance said...

And one other thing...organizing workshops is hard. Why not do it through one of the gazillion adult education places in NY? Learning Annex is one I know about, but there are a lot of them. They do the advertising, sign people up, do the money and I'm sure they take a commission but all you have to do is show up and teach the class. I can see a pickle-of-the-month workshop where you do one workshop per month on different pickles. That cranberry chutney was to die for...so good. I'd take a workshop from you any day of the week.

Amy said...

I love homemade gifts for Christmas. I always give out tins of homemade cookies and fudge, and this year I am also making small jars of several of my favorite spice rubs.

The figs sound fantastic, but unfortunately I am too far away from NYC. Good luck with the classes! (Perhaps you can get some of the NYC food bloggers to help you advertise?